My First Ethiopian Travels

After IST (Peace Corps In-Service Training) in Sodere I was able to take my first trip in Ethiopia and I decided to head down south.  My friend Danielle and I were able to travel to Hawassa, Yirgalem and Lake Langano to visit other volunteers, do a little work, and have some well-deserved time off.  It seemed like a completely new world traveling south through green fields, even stopping on our way to Hawassa to buy fresh strawberries.  The city of Hawassa lies on a lake providing the perfect backdrop for sunsets and lots of wildlife to see.  Besides the massive stork-type birds found all over the city we were able to see goureza monkeys and we took a boat ride to see the hippos in Lake Hawassa.  At least eight hippos had their heads sticking up out of the water amongst the long grass.  Of course there were also a lot of new restaurants to try; countless places claiming true “ferengi food” and some even resembled food found in America!

After a quick visit in Hawassa we escaped to our friend Jordan’s town, Yirgalem, just one hour south.  Combining work and pleasure, we were able to take a look at Jordan’s host organization, the Beza Youth Center, and see another part of the south.  It was interesting the see another town with the supposed same population as my town, and yet it seemed so different.  Besides the surrounding forests, and green plants, Yirgalem is spread out to seem much bigger.  One night we took a hike into the forest to a lodge where we saw a hyena-feeding.  Three hyenas came within 20 feet of where we were sitting!

Lastly we visited Lake Langano on out way back up to Addis Ababa. Lake Langano is the only swimmable lake in the whole country, and I was excited to jump right in!  Although the water was mud-colored, the cool water was welcomed after the hot springs of Sodere.  We had a wonderful day swimming and kayaking around the lake, it almost seemed like we weren’t in Ethiopia for a day.

Overall the trip triggered my travel bug and has made me start to mentally plan my future adventures around Ethiopia.  This country is so vast, full of different places to visit.  I can’t wait to see more.